Street artist Etienne Lavie’s ongoing project, “OMG, Who Stole My Ads”, surreptitiously replaces public ads around Paris with copies of classical artworks. Lavie’s insinuation of real works of art into the tedious, mundane, ubiquitous domain of advertising art is a refreshing break from the insinuation of the commercial in urban life.
This terrific video is a cinematic love letter to America’s greatest city and America’s greatest filmmaker. Robert Kolodny took clips from 14 of Martin Scorsese’s films—After Hours, Bring Out the Dead, Gangs of New York, Goodfellas, King of Comedy, Mean Streets, New York,New York, New York Stories, Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, Who’s Knocking at My Door, and The Wolf of Wall Street.
The gorgeous music is the Intermezzo from Pietro Mascagni’s opera Cavalleria Rusticana, which Scorsese used in Raging Bull.
H/T to our old friend Ula Wolodkowicz for this wonderful aerial tour of beautiful Poland. If you’ve had doubts about ever visiting Poland, this should be the tipping point. The video—via Nokia air copter—is by Artur Gajdzinski of ArtCamBiz.
Poetry Wanted is a tiny Paris-based publisher with a somewhat incongruous focus on photography. Last year the company founder, photographer Rémi Noël launched a project called “This Is Not A Map”, which produces a publication that looks like a map and folds like a map, but is in reality a collection of geographically specific photographs. The first two “maps” covered Texas and Las Vegas, with Scotland and Japan soon to follow.
Antonio La Cava taught elementary school students in the little mountain town of Ferrandina outside of Matera, Italy for 42 years. After retiring from teaching, he transformed a trusty Ape mini-truck into a tiny bookmobile, which he calls the
“bibliomotocarro”. Since 2003, La Cava has travel 500 kilometers every month visiting eight rural Basilicata villages to spread the joy of reading and the love of books to kids and adults alike. With the motto “It’s a fool who does not read” and an itinerant lending library of 1200 books, the retired educator shares the magic of reading with all comers.
La Chandeleur, or Candlemas day, is a traditional French holiday celebrated on February 2nd each year. It’s customary for families to gather together to eat crepes, and if the cook can successfully flip a crepe with one hand while holding a coin in their dominant hand the family will have a prosperous year. Another common notion is that a triumphant flip will predict a early end to winter.
Like all traditional holidays, La Chandeleur comes with folk proverbs:
Á la Chandeleur, l’hiver cesse ou reprend vigeur. On Candelmas, winter ends or strengthens.
Soleil de la Chandeleur, annonce hiver et Malheur. A sunny Candelmas brings winter and misfortune.
Which ever way the flip goes, I’d love to be spending this Chandeleur at my favorite Paris creperie, the Breizh Café on rue Vielle Temple in the Marais.
Even if you are a seasoned international traveler, there are certainly times when you are at loss when away from home. This interesting infographic/quiz from the British travel agency Travelbag covers “50 things a traveler should know”. What kind of traveler are you? Tepid or Super Nomad?
It’s been a few years since I’ve been to Mexico, but it’s a rare week when I don’t have Mexican food. I challenge you to watch this terrific video and not crave Mexican food for dinner. The video is from the folks at the Perennial Plate. Visit their website to see more of the same. (The music is by MC, producer and activist Olmeca)
Painting courtesy of Bonnie Butler @ http://www.bonniebutlerart.com
The Peculiar Underworld of Rare-Book Thieves
What is the oldest book in the world?
The Library of Congress by the numbers.
What happens when Oxford’s Bodleian Library and the Biblioteca Vaticana collude?
designing metropolitan subway system maps to make them easily understood for both locals and visitors is a challenge for any graphic designer or cartographer. It’s equally challenging to create city transit maps that reflect a municipal identity.
Zero Per Zero, a Seoul, Korea-based graphic design studio has launched a project to incorporate symbolic elements of cities into transit maps while attempting to preserve cartographic clarity. Each of their maps starts with a symbol for the city—a tulip for Amsterdam, a heart for NYC, the Eiffel Tower for Paris.
If you want to see more maps, or buy maps or prints, visit the Zero Per Zero website.
Travel Between The Pages 